A mass of people reaches the door in a confusing, chaotic, wild, brawling, seething bunch of grunts and hisses, of bones snapping and blood spraying. Roland pushes through them. Screaming in fear and terror for his own life as he runs and dives through the portal. Tango Two tracks him going across the room then to Safa Patel, Ben Ryder and the other big guy with the beard fighting like demons to keep everyone else back.
‘WHERE IS TANGO TWO?’ Mother demands again, her voice rising to a screech.
‘TOP FLOOR . . . I HAVE THE TARGET MALE,’ Tango Two transmits in a frantic shout in the utter chaos of the moment.
Miri’s head catches up to the fact the gun is not in her hand anymore. She rises and grabs Bertie, trying to drag him towards the blue light. Heedless of the female agent still holding him. Heedless of anything and everything. Consumed only with the need to get Bertie away.
‘GET TO BERTIE . . .’ Safa bellows.
‘BERTIE, GO . . .’ Ben screams out, his own face streaming with blood.
‘GO, BERTIE . . .’ Ria shouts.
‘GET OUT, LAD,’ Harry roars.
‘Get through . . . Get through . . .’ Miri mutters the words over and again as Tango Two spins to see the older woman tugging on his arm, desperate to get him away.
Ben breaks free of the mass, diving towards Tango Two, who darts back with Bertie firmly in her grip. She has a pistol. She could shoot him, but he’s Ben Ryder. She could shoot the other woman, but it’s Safa Patel. Indecision renders her hopeless as someone slams Ben down from behind.
Safa thrusts her head back into the face of the male grabbing her. She breaks his nose, then kicks into his shins and pulls free. She aims for Bertie and not Tango Two. A black-masked figure dives out, grabbing Safa’s trailing leg and bringing her down. Again Tango Two stares almost slack-jawed at the woman she knows is Safa Patel twisting to fight back at the man holding her.
‘BERTIE, RUN . . . RUN, BERTIE,’ Ria screams out.
‘WHERE IS TANGO TWO?’ Mother’s screeching voice repeats the question. Tango Two winces, confused and jarred. She sees Echo lurching into the room, his hand already on his radio ready to transmit.
‘WITH ME, TOP FLOOR . . .’
‘GUNSHIPS . . . TOP FLOOR . . . FIRE NOW, FIRE NOW . . .’ Mother screams.
The engine pitch of the gunships changes again as they drop and start to turn. Tango Two feels the pull coming from Miri heaving on Bertie’s arm.
‘KILL TANGO TWO . . . KILL HER NOW!’ Mother rages into the radio, into earpieces and through loudspeakers to be heard clearly by everyone in the room. ‘KILL TANGO TWO . . . GUNSHIPS . . . TOP FLOOR, FIRE NOW, FIRE NOW . . .’
The chain guns on the gunships come to life. The noise is overwhelming and blots out all others sounds. Huge rounds slam into the top floor of the house, smashing through bricks that sail down in chunks. The gunships turn slowly, strafing from the ends of the house towards the middle. Nothing in this room will be alive within a few seconds.
A shot snaps Tango Two’s head over. Echo firing at her with his face so beaten one of his eyes is sealed closed. She lifts and fires with an instinct that makes her react before she can give it conscious thought. The round hits Echo’s throat, spinning him back and away. She fires again, the second shot killing him outright. That instinct takes over. Indecision leaves. Hesitancy evaporates.
‘KILL TANGO TWO . . . KILL HER NOW . . .’
Someone lurches at her. She fires at the figure, killing him instantly. She twitches and fires again. Shooting another one down. She aims and fires into the back of the one fighting with Safa. He screams out, releasing his grip. Tango Two fires again. She goes backwards towards the blue light, one hand holding Bertie, the other aiming to fire at anyone coming at her.
Tango Two snatches a glance at the older woman still tugging on Bertie’s arm, and turns to heave and send them both staggering through the blue light.
Safa vaults up to lock eyes on Tango Two firing past her, and tracks the shot to one of the soldiers. Everything on instinct. Safa saw the woman push Miri and Bertram through the portal. No time to think. She grabs Ria and heaves the girl towards Tango Two, who pushes her on towards the blue light.
The chain guns get closer, destroying everything in their trajectory of fire. A missile launched from one of the gunships strikes and explodes at the end of the house that shakes and vibrates from the huge detonation. Dust and plaster rain down from the ceiling. A second fires in. A third.
Tango Two braces, aims and fires the last of the rounds. She kills her own team as Harry grabs Safa and Ben and runs towards the blue light.
The chain guns hit the ends of the room. The rounds powering through the bricks with ease. Daylight floods in from the walls blown away. They won’t make it. Tango Two can see it. There is no way anyone else will get through that portal.
A bright blur swooshes up from the ground outside and slams into the side of the gunship on the right side. Flames scorch up as the impact sends it slewing through the air into the other one. Propellers strike propellers. Metal pings off and spins across the expanse into the house. The chain guns still firing. The gunships’ engines whir louder as the pilots fight to control the craft now coming across the grounds towards the house.
Seconds bought, but it’s enough. Tango Two’s eyes go wide. Someone runs into her, driving her off her feet and back towards the wardrobe. Noise everywhere. Fire, flames, smoke, explosions. The two gunships hit the house with a deep crash of twisting metal and solid ringing thuds. Tango Two goes through the blue light as the gunships crash through the wall into the room. She goes screaming from the noise and the sheer overwhelming awe of seeing such a thing.
She lands hard on her back. Still screaming. Still shouting. Still believing she is in the house. The pistol drops from her hand and it takes seconds for her to realise the only sounds in this bare concrete room are coming from her and the others crying and gasping.
Flames billow through the blue light only a few feet away. She tries to scrabble back and away from the wall of heat that stinks of aviation fuel. Ben, Harry and Safa all tangled on top and underneath her.
Miri crawls as fast as her pain-ridden body will let her. Round the back of the portal to the tablet device left on the side that she grabs and thumbs at, half-blind and half-delirious. The blue light cuts off and with it the flames and heat instantly end.
In the bunker room, they lie gasping, heaving for air, sweat burning eyes. Cuts, bruises and welts show everywhere as Miri mutters the time on her watch to herself, then sinks down on to her back while thinking maybe she got it wrong about Safa, Harry and Ben.
Nine
‘No threat . . . No threat . . .’
‘Don’t fucking move . . .’
It’s not over. Not yet. Not by a long way. Miri lies on her back, gasping for air, listening to the voices around her.
‘Ben, hold her hands . . . Harry, get up . . .’
‘I’m not resisting . . .’